{"id":36340,"date":"2019-04-26T09:49:37","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T16:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=36340"},"modified":"2019-04-26T09:49:37","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T16:49:37","slug":"friday-fun-things-that-might-be-bugging-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/26\/friday-fun-things-that-might-be-bugging-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Fun: Things That Might Be “Bugging” You"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/u><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Who doesn\u2019t enjoy a handful or three of jelly beans at Easter time?\u00a0 Well, now that Easter has passed and you\u2019ve consumed your yearly quota of that confection, it\u2019s probably safe to share with you an interesting tidbit that most of you most likely weren\u2019t aware of \u2026<\/p>\n

That beautiful glossy glaze that makes jelly beans glimmer is made from the poop of<\/strong> female<\/strong> lac bugs<\/strong>!\u00a0 YUM!\u00a0 YUM!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The female lac bug (Kerria lacca)<\/em> <\/a>sucks the sap out of trees in the forests of India, Thailand and Malaysia, and then poops out the excrement (called sticklac<\/em><\/strong>) on branches.\u00a0 This will become shellac that\u2019s used on our furniture as well as \u201cConfectioner\u2019s Glaze\u201d<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 (I think you\u2019d agree that\u2019s a much more appetizing term than \u201cLiquid Lac Bug Sh!t\u201d<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This sticklac<\/em> is then then scraped off the branches \u2013 but because it also contains pieces of bark and pieces of lac bug, it needs to be purified.\u00a0 The glob is place is a long canvas bag and heated over a fire to liquefy the \u2026 hmmm<\/em> \u2026 let\u2019s go with resin<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 This is then mostly converted to shellac, and it\u2019s estimated it takes anywhere from 50,000 to 300,000 lac bugs to make a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of shellac flakes.<\/p>\n

These shellac flakes are then converted into the Confectioner\u2019s Glaze<\/em> that\u2019s sprayed on jelly beans, Malted Milk Balls, Raisinettes and even apples.\u00a0 It not only produces an attractive sheen, but it also extends shell-life.<\/p>\n

To make you feel better, the FDA has approved it as safe for human consumption.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019ll be sticking with Peeps<\/em><\/strong> and chocolate Easter bunnies from now on.<\/p>\n

As long as were discussing Easter, we shouldn’t pass up covering Rep. Steve (Cantaloupe-Calves) King (R-IA)<\/em><\/strong> who had the temerity to claim victimhood comparable to the suffering of Jesus<\/strong> by claiming he\u2019s been crucified by his fellow Rethuglicans.<\/p>\n

You can easily recall that while King has a very long<\/em><\/a> and a very ignoble<\/em><\/a> history of uttering racist remarks, this is the one made during an interview with \u201cThe New York Times\u201d<\/em> that crossed the red-line for Rethuglicans:<\/p>\n

“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization \u2014 how did that<\/em> language become offensive?”<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He was quickly stripped of all his committee assignments \u2013 and his whining immediately commenced.<\/p>\n

King said he can easily relate to the suffering of Jesus Christ, equating his recent humiliation to what Christ \u201cwent through for us.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“And, when I have to step down to the floor of the House of Representatives, and look up at those 400-and-some accusers, you know we just passed through Easter and Christ’s Passion, and I have better insight into what He went through for us partly because of that experience.”<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, if King is saying that he, you know, wants to get the full experience of Christ\u2019s Easter Passion, I\u2019m sure there are people willing to chip in for the lumber.\u00a0 Just saying …<\/p>\n

But I don\u2019t want to close with that downer, so I\u2019ll share with you some tidbits and a GIF I came across that illustrates how Twitler<\/strong><\/em> will cheat on anyone, everyone, anything and everything \u2026 even something as trivial as a game of golf.<\/p>\n

Twitler is such a well-know golf cheat that an entire book has been written about it: Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In fact his caddies have witnessed him kicking his ball out from the rough back onto the fairway (a YUGE<\/em> golf \u201cNO-NO\u201d<\/strong>) that they\u2019ve nicknamed him Pel\u00e9<\/strong>, after the Brazilian soccer legend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But I will say he\u2019s a very accomplished and skillful cheater, as this GIF demonstrates.\u00a0 But I slowed it down and you have to watch closely because he’s perfected the art:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t get that smooth<\/em><\/span> at cheating without years of practice!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who doesn\u2019t enjoy a handful or three of jelly beans at Easter time?\u00a0 Well, now that Easter has passed and you\u2019ve consumed your yearly quota of that confection, it\u2019s probably safe to share with you an interesting tidbit that most of you most likely weren\u2019t aware of \u2026 That beautiful glossy glaze that makes jelly […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}